Friday, April 8, 2011

The Next Step in Blackmarsh

The print copy cleared the premedia review by Lightning Source and now I ordered my review copy to make sure are no other screw ups other than the misspelled word on the back cover. Once that is shipped (and my computer is up and running) I will fix the print cover. I appreciate Laslo for point out the mistake.

When you fix a print PDF on Lulu, the old copy is still available for purchase while the new version works it way through the pre press option. I did this a couple of time to update the Majestic Wilderlands. Because I successfully exported validated the PDF as meeting the PDF/1xa standard the prepress seem to take less time.

Plus I got this message for Majestic Wilderlands

A1 - 1000 - Content is approved for production

and this for Blackmarsh

A1 - 1000 - Content is approved for production no proof req

I am asking One Bookshelf about the difference. I know the PDF/1xa specs are meant to insure that the submitted PDF prints exactly like how you see it on the printer's press.

I am excited to see how using the color book option looks on my maps and illustrations and really want to see the cover in it's full glory. Interestingly the only way to print less than 18 pages on RPGNow is to use color.

So it is now a week or so before Blackmarsh will be released. Again the PDF will be released for free. The text and map will be completely under the OGL for anybody wanting to do commercial or non-commercial projects.

Bat in the Attic Games

How to make a Sandbox

The Old School Renaissance

To me the Old School Renaissance is not about playing a particular set of rules in a particular way, the dungeon crawl. It is about going back to the roots of our hobby and seeing what we could do differently. What avenues were not explored because of the commercial and personal interests of the game designers of the time.

What are RPGs?

A game where the players play individual characters interacting with a setting with their actions adjudicated by a human referee.

Rules are an aide to help the referee adjudicate actions and to help the players interact with the setting.

Dice are used to inject uncertainty which make a tabletop RPG campaign more interesting than "Let's Pretend".

The only thing a player needs to do to roleplay a character is to act if he or she was really there in the setting in that situation.